When it comes to winning multiple titles at the Ladies Simon Fraser Open golf tournament, nobody does it better than Betty Ann Shiels.
In the tournament’s 53-year history she’s been crowned champion nine times.
The last time that happened was 2015 and the 58-year-old Shiels says she quite OK with a younger generation of golfers taking their place in the spotlight this weekend in the 54th consecutive running of the Prince George Golf and Curling Club tournament.
“In the world of golf, 2015 was a long time ago - I’d say my time has come and gone,” said Shiels, one of 53 golfers entered in the tournament, which starts Saturday at Prince George Golf and Curling Club.
“I’m really excited about the new up-and-comers. We’ve got Dougie Krecsy and Meka Jensen, and they’re younger players who have stated playing the last couple years here at the Prince George club. They’re going to be contenders. They have young families but hopefully the families get involved and they can get out and play more and it would be great to see them continue and win the tournament. They’re the future.”
Last year’s champion, 20-year-old Natasha Kozlowski, is now based in Kelowna and won’t be back to defend her title. The College Heights Secondary School graduate is heading into her second year playing college golf at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford. Taking Kozlowski out of the mix this weekend at PGGCC leaves the Simon Fraser field wide open.
Ann Holmes of Prince George has been taking advantage of the warm summer weather and has been a regular on the course at PGGCC this year. Holmes finished fourth in the Ladies Simon last year and is one of the favourites to be in the hunt for the title on Sunday, along with Lisa Kerley and Kelly Flaherty, both of Williams Like, who finished second and third respectively in 2020.
You can never count out Shiels. She was 38 in 1991 when she captured her first Ladies Simon title. She also had her name etched on the trophy in 1998, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.
“It’s a great tournament, it’s one of the longest-standing tournaments here in northern B.C., said Shiels. “It’s a two-day stroke tournament and I like that, it’s up to you as an individual, and it’s a fun weekend because you get the out-of-town players and you connect with people you’ve played with over the years.”
Sponsored by Northern Spirit Transportation and Westcana Electric, the tournament includes four flights and a Callaway scoring system to accommodate golfers from the smaller par 3 courses that don’t have a ranking system to determine handicaps which determine net scores. Eleven of the 53-golfer field are from out of town.
As was the case last year when 45 golfers entered the Ladies Simon, the traditional banquet won’t happen this weekend due to the uncertainty brought on by the restrictions of the pandemic.
The first tee-off Saturday are at 9 a.m. Sunday’s final round starts at 8:30 a.m. and the final group should be in the clubhouse around 3 p.m., depending on the weather. There are showers predicted for Saturday but not until late in the day, with a high of 26 C in store for the city. Periods of rain are in the forecast for Sunday, with a high of 21 C expected.
Bailey bags men’s title at PGGCC
Cody Bailey captured the Matt Briggs Memorial Trophy for the second time last Sunday after he won the 57th annual Simon Fraser Open men’s tournament. The 20-year-old from Prince George went into the final of three rounds tied with Kevin Pederson and Keenan Hopson. Bailey shot a 68 in his final round to win by two strokes over Pederson.
For Bailey, it was his second Simon Fraser title, after winning it for the first time in 2019. He shot 73-71-68 for a 212 total on the par 71 course. Pederson totaled 72-72-70—214, while Hopson ended up third in the overall gross standings (73-71-71—215) in a field of 108 golfers.
Manny Nijjer, a 19 handicap, was the overall low-net winner at 206 after he shot 90-82-86—203.
